Abstract

Following October 7, 2023, the almost immediate spread of news and images of the attack produced heavy emotional reactions in public opinion in many countries. This work analyzes data from a representative survey on the attitudes toward Jews and Muslims of Italian undergraduates conducted between late September and late October 2023, encompassing both those dramatic events and the war that followed. Data reveal that, first, Italian students tend to organize attitudes towards Jews around three main dimensions, those toward Muslims around one. Second, attitudes towards the two groups vary according to cultural values of reference, commitment to study, and political orientation. Third, negative attitudes towards Muslims are more prevalent than those toward Jews, but this difference narrows between center-left and left-leaning students and, in some cases, reverses. Finally, the analysis shows that one of the dimensions organizing unfavourable attitudes towards Jews experienced very substantial growth on the days immediately following October 7. 

Bio

Asher D. Colombo is Full Professor in Sociology at University of Bologna (Italy) since 1998. He is an alumnus of the University of Trento, where he completed his PhD, and during his career he has been a visiting scholar at Brown University (Providence, RI), Berkeley (CA, USA) and Windsor (ON, Canada). His primary research interests concern attitudes towards death and the social organization of death in Italy and Europe over the past centuries. Currently, he is president of the Istituto Carlo Cattaneo of Bologna.